More recent printer drivers on W200x and XP no longer run in kernel mode (unlike Windows NT). However, both operating systems can still use the NT drivers, running in kernel mode (you can roughly tell which is which as the drivers in subdirectory “2” of “W32X86” are “old” ones). As was said before, the Adobe as well as the Microsoft PostScript drivers are not known to cause any stability problems. The CUPS driver is derived from the Microsoft one. There is a simple reason for this: the MS DDK (Device Development Kit) for Windows NT (which used to be available at no cost to licensees of Visual Studio) includes the source code of the Microsoft driver, and licensees of Visual Studio are allowed to use and modify it for their own driver development efforts. This is what the CUPS people have done. The license does not allow them to publish the whole of the source code. However, they have released the “diff” under the GPL, and if you are the owner of an “MS DDK for Windows NT,” you can check the driver yourself.